The most important way to grow your Facebook reach is to be consistent. Be helpful, interesting and authentic – involve your audience. The more people that get involved the more likely your reach will grow.

Turn up! If you teach your audience that you show up consistently they will more likely show up.

Q2. How can people overcome their video fears?

Most people get nervous before they go live. It’s normal! But nerves are good – it shows you care. Learn to channel that nervous energy into excitement in front of the camera and communicate your passion!

A great way to get used to being in front of the camera and build consistency is to create Instagram stories. They’re only 15 seconds long! What’s the worst that can happen? They disappear after 24 hours!

The way I overcame my fears was to do a live video challenge. That way you show up daily with others and are held accountable. You learn from your mistakes too.

Plan, plan, plan! Have a promotion and tech checklist that you follow each time. You can avoid so much trouble if you do this and it’ll help you become more confident.

Do some physical and vocal warm up before you go live. It makes such a difference. Use more of your vocal range (high and low) to communicate more passionately.

Q3. What is the best starter equipment to use?

Start off using your phone (Android or iPhone). Bootstrap your live video studio and start small.

The first upgrade I’d recommend is a microphone (audio is important). I love the Rode SmartLav+ mic. It really helps the sound!

Next I recommend a tripod for your phone. I bought a smartphone mount for my tripod. You can buy them for around £8/$10.

Lighting is important. Try and film near a window with daylight. But you can buy simple lighting such as a clip-on light for your phone.

For broadcasting from your computer you need a powerful computer. A low cost laptop or a MacBook Air is unlikely to cope. Go for an i7 processor and 16Gb of memory.

I love the Logitech C920 webcams, they’re low cost and good quality and much better than the built in webcams.

Q4. What tools do you recommend for going live?

At the start, keep things simple. Broadcast from your phone using the Facebook app. It’s simple! Just make sure you have a decent internet upload speed!

For Mac users wanting to broadcast from their desktop, I highly recommend Ecamm Live. It’s really easy to use and so powerful.

For PC users, you could start with OBS Studio. It’s what I used to start. It’s a bit tricky to use to begin with but it’s powerful and free.

A great way to start broadcasting from your computer for beginners is BeLive TV. It’s really easy to use and it’s easy to invite guests too.

PCs are better for high end live streaming (more powerful generally) but Macs have easier software (Ecamm).

I also use Wirecast. It’s not cheap ($700) but it’s a professional live video tool and you can do so much with it. It works on Macs and PCs.

Live video is just another content form, just like podcasts, blog posts, etc. So treat it in the same way and focus on quality!

Q5. What content works well for Facebook LIVE videos?

Behind the scenes content works really well on live video. Also Question and Answer sessions.

I broadcast a regular live show, and repurpose that into a podcast, so don’t forget to repurpose!

You can also run webinars on live videos such as presentations or “how to” videos. Make sure you use the new polls feature so your audience can get involved.

Q6. How should you structure your live videos?

Start with introducing yourself and welcoming your replay viewers. After you’ve shared what you’re talking about welcome your live viewers.

Structure your live videos in a way that makes repurposing easier later. Have a short “pre-show” section where you are welcoming your live viewers before the main content.

Don’t let live viewer’s comments distract you in the main section. You can say you’ll get back to them in a bit.

You can ask people to get involved, like and share. Sometimes people need to be encouraged!

Towards the end, summarise your content and importantly give a call to action! Then tell people when you will next be live!

Q7. How should you promote your Facebook LIVE videos?

You can schedule a Facebook Live up to a week in advance. Then you can share that link to your email audience and schedule to Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn and more!

You could create an event on your page for your live video, then invite a selection of your fans.

After your live video has ended, you can promote it via Facebook ads. You can even promote to people who have viewed previous videos!

If you invite guests on to your show, you can ask them to promote. And if you tag them in the show that will help. You could also set up cross-posting so the video will be posted on their page too!

Share to your Facebook profile, groups and other pages if it makes sense. You can also invite your friends to watch.